Many software applications exist that can automatically find faces within a collection of photos. These software applications may also group these faces according to the person to which they belong. Specifically, a facial recognition function can group similar faces together. A group of faces from a photo collection that is determined to belong to the same person is referred to as a face cluster.
Facial recognition functions may not be completely accurate. This is because different photos of the same person may show that person at different angles and with different lighting. Thus, a particular face cluster with a relatively small number of instances may actually be associated with a person of a relatively large face cluster. Thus, the smaller face cluster should be merged with the larger face cluster. A user may often manually go through several face clusters to determine which, if any, should be merged. This task can be time consuming.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements.